Hi!
I just graduated high school and finished my college search. A user messaged me asking for advice to get into college, so I thought I’d impart the knowledge I gained through my college search onto the class of 2020. If anyone else has any advice feel free to add it!
I took all IB classes my senior year (similar to AP if you aren’t familiar). I also took two online classes outside of school because I felt I needed them for my major. My college counselor gave the advice to always try and have a full schedule your senior year because if you take only easy classes and have a bunch of study halls it can appear that you’re slacking off so to speak.
When I took the PSAT mine was predicted to be around 2200 though. I ended up with a 1900 I’m not saying that to scare you. You could end up with your predicted score or higher, but I feel that I should worn you that sometimes those predictions aren’t accurate - or you can end up getting an SAT that was just particularly bad for you. If you take it the first time and don’t do as well, you can always take it again. But I recommend you try and study hard for the first one because sometimes if you take the SAT the first time and do poorly, and then take it again and get a higher score due to more preparation they will say that you cheated and will not release your scores. That happened to a good friend of mine. Ended up being a nightmare for him.
I wouldn’t worry too much about your GPA if you can keep your grades up your senior year and do well on the SAT. Unless you’ve failed all your classes and are expecting to get into an Ivy league school… Just be smart about it. I think most people can tell if they’re in trouble or not on their own. Our counselor told us that colleges look at grade trends - i.e if you did poorly your freshman and sophomore year, but perhaps you got serious your junior year and brought your GPA up they may reconsider you.
I had three letters of recommendation. These can also be a huge asset to you. I would suggest you choose two from teachers that you feel really know you as a person. You can also get letters from people within your community that you helped - like if you did some community service and worked under an organization you could ask whomever you worked directly under to write you a letter. Colleges like to see that you’re involved in your community. The last letter of recommendation I got was from my college counselor. She took information from each of us in our school and wrote a letter about us. I think these letters helped a lot in some cases. I’m not sure if your counselor does something similar or not. If they do not, I would say you should probably only have a maximum of four letters of recommendation. Three if you can. Two at most from teachers, and then the third or fourth from either your counselor or outside. A representative from a popular university came to visit us and gave some very good advice on letters that I’ll share with you: Don’t have a million letters of recommendation. They don’t have the time to read all of them since they’re going through so many applications. Letters don’t make or break your application. But a good letter can tell the college a lot about if they feel you would be a good fit there. He also told us of examples where people would send in horrendous numbers of letters - like 20. But one student submitted a single letter of recommendation from the newspaper he worked in. His boss boasted of how he was the hardest working employee he had and he didn’t even pay him. That letter helped him get in - whereas the 20 letters for other people did not.
For any college you use the common application for you have to do the personal statement - it’ll be the same for every one so don’t write anything specific to the college. I would just choose the one you feel relates the most to you and go for it. Have your english teacher look over it if he or she has the time. Mine was happy to look over anyone’s that asked him to. I don’t know if yours is as open, but if they aren’t perhaps have a parent glance over it? Just to fix any grammar mistakes you may have made that you didn’t catch. I chose the one about which environment I was perfectly content - just because I felt I could say more about myself through this one. They’re trying to get a grasp of the kind of person you are. This is to see if the college is the right fit for you. I wouldn’t try to sound too oriented toward one college in your personal statement. Just be yourself. A lot of people get into colleges they think they’ll love - and then when they get there they realize they don’t fit at all. This could all be avoided through this in some cases.
On my application I also had to write two other essays about why I wanted to go to that University. I’m not sure if that’s the same for you or just for the major I applied into. For essays like this I suggest you look into the university more. What is their motto? Do you feel that your goals are in line with this motto? Write about stuff like that. But don’t make it all about the university. They already know all of their facts. They want to know about you, so just try to showcase your goals and dreams.
Lastly, there is a website I will recommend to you that our counselor made every student use. It’s called ‘■■■■■■■■■■’. You can enter all the stats you have - GPA, extra curricular, SAT, ect. and it will tell you what your chances are of getting into that university. My counselor said it’s pretty accurate based on the number of years she’s used it. That being said, if you don’t have too good of a chance don’t get put off. I got into a university that it said I had a slim chance of getting into.
I wouldn’t be too put off if you don’t get into the university of your choice. That being said, if it is the only place you want to go and you don’t end up getting in you can always transfer. Go to community college, get whatever they didn’t like up - GPA, extra curricular, ect - and then transfer after your sophomore year. Good luck in your college search! I hope I was able to help. If you have anymore questions let me know.